Nonfiction Monday: Little White Duck

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China Na Liu, illustrated by Andres Vera Martinez

So, I may have been a little over-excited about this one. There aren't a lot of books about post-Mao, pre-Tiananmen China. Let alone for kids. Let alone in comic book form. Na Liu was a small child when Mao died and everything changed. In a series of short stories, she shows glimpses of her childhood, comparing it with how her parents grew up during the Great Leap Forward and Great Famine. In one memorable story, she accompanies her father to his country home and sees how privileged her life really is. This will be enlightening to American readers, as Na Liu's life isn't easy compared to modern American standards-- I don't know of any America schools where kids are assigned the duty of killing rats, and have to bring in the tails as proof.

That said, I wanted more. I wanted more context and more history for these stories. I don't think that will turn off of confuse the intended audience-- if nothing else more context might overwhelm the younger readers this is aimed at. There's enough her to understand what's happening, and I think it's great for children. But, as an adult reader, I did want something more than a few childhood vignettes--especially because this is a time period SO unexplored across all age-ranges, formats, and genres. It's a great book for kids, but it left me a little underwhelmed.

Today's Nonfiction Monday is over at Abby (the) Librarian.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Mo Yan

Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for Literature!

He's my favorite author and he's had Nobel hype for years. It's so exciting that he finally won!

The first book of his that I read was Red Sorghum. It was assigned for a Chinese Literature in Translation course. I was only auditing the class and could only read part of it before I had to turn my attention elsewhere. But, I liked it so much that I went back and finished it after the semester was over.

The movie Red Sorghum dramatises the first part of the novel. The opening scenes of Happy Times are based on one of the short stories in Shifu, You'll Do Anything For a Laugh.

The Garlic Ballads is my favorite book by him.

I prefer is earlier stuff to his later stuff. The shorter works are tighter and more accessible. His later works seem like a Nobel bid, but are still very good. Overall his writing is marked by a visceral lushness that I'm not used to seeing from Chinese prose, which is usually sparse in its descriptions. Many of his works are touched by a magic realism that brings to mind Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

AND! When writing up this blog post I see that many of his works are available for FREE for Amazon Prime members through the lending library and many are priced at bargain prices to own the Kindle version. Take advantage while you can, especially of the three titles I mentioned in this post.


Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Ministers of Fire

Ministers of Fire Mark Harril Saunders

Afghanistan went sour in 1979. Burling saw the ambassador get assassinated and then hatched his plan to bring in the Chinese to arm the Mujahedin. But he had to take April, his operative's wife, and on that meeting on the runway near the Russian border, she was taken. The aftermath saw his career ended and his family life shattered.

Summer, 2002. A Chinese dissident has escaped house arrest and is being smuggled to the US by a group of underground Christians and intellectuals. April's husband, Lindstrom, is brought out of a sober retirement to get him out. The head of State Security, General Zu, was on the runway when April was taken. He's on the dissident's trail. Burling, who is now the consul in Shanghai is only vaguely aware of what's going on, even though Lindstrom thinks he orchestrated the entire thing. Lindstrom's contact is Charlotte, a cultural attache and Burling's current girlfriend, who reminds everyone of April. Everyone's connected and the past is coming to haunt them, but no one knows who is pulling what strings or why.

There are plenty of car chases and gun battles on the streets of Shanghai, but this is actually a character piece of slow tension. We see into the minds of many characters on all sides and various free agents. All of them are flawed and striving towards their future, or running from their past, or both. There are true believers-- in communism, in God, in doing what is right, and jaded cynics. There are secrets and lies and people who can't make sense of the post-9/11 landscape. They doubt each other, they doubt themselves, as they try to understand the situation and who's in charge.

I loved the character development and exploration. I especially enjoyed the look at the toll the life these characters lead take on their families. Burling's kids don't talk to him, resentful of the constant moving around the world, of the way their parents' marriage dissolved. I'm guessing that many of these issues are taken from Saunders's own life, as he grew up the son of a diplomat.

I loved the look into the lives and minds of the Chinese Security police, how they still grappled with the legacy of Tiananmen.

It's more of a LeCarre slow burn than a Fleming action romp, and it keeps you madly guessing and turning pages until the end.

AND! IF YOU LIVE IN DC! Saunders is doing a free event at the Spy Museum on Friday, June 29 at noon.

Book Provided by... the Spy Museum for review consideration and event promotion.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Midnight in Peking

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China Paul French

It's taken me a few days for me to say anything about this book besides "I just... wow. I mean, it's just, Beijing and... wow. I mean... wow." And that goes for the rather explosive content and also the way French can spin out a story. (I mean, wow.)

In early January, 1937, the night of Russian Christmas, Pamela Werner was murdered. Horrifically. Her body was found the next morning outside the supposedly haunted Fox Tower in Beijing.* She lived with her father in the Tartar city, just outside the Foreign Legation, so the investigation is under the control of the Chinese police. But she's a British subject, the daughter of a former British Consul, and this isn't an average robbery gone wrong. To get around the British legation promoting an envoy to the case that they would control, the Chinese police appoint a detective from Tianjin, where Pamela went to boarding school. DCI Dennis was former Scotland Yard and wasn't under the legation's control. His hands were tied by the British as to what he could and couldn't do, but he wouldn't get in the way of the investigation.

But the British want to save face and hinder things at every turn. The Consul in Beijing has a personal dislike of Werner's father. National and personal politics play large. The White Russians who run the Badlands, the strip of seedy dive bars, opium dens, and brothels between the Legation Quarter and the Tartar city, aren't talking. In Tianjin, Pamela was a quiet school girl. In Beijing, she had several boyfriends and liked to party. Meanwhile, the Japanese are surrounding the city and getting ever closer. Everyone's fleeing-- either the investigation or the threat of war.

The murder remains unsolved, and the case technically open, but no one working on it. Pamela's father starts his own investigation and gathers his own evidence and reaches his own conclusions about who murdered his daughter. The Japanese get involved. Then they're not. Different personal and national politics at play, but they still have a major role in the investigation. Pamela's father has a compelling case to make against his main suspect (one that French agrees with) but the Consul and London are ignoring his pleas and evidence. Personal politics make it easy to write him off. The war makes it easy for his files and notes to get shoved in a drawer and lost (until French found them in an uncataloged file at The British National Archive in Kew.)

Was it the KMT? The Japanese? A jealous boyfriend? Was it a message to someone else? Or something far more sinister? (Answer: far far far more sinister.)

Secret nudist colonies, stateless prostitutes, political assassinations, and cocktail hours spent at smoky back tables gathering gossip, rumor, clues and evidence, Shura**... and a world on the brink of war. Basically, but John LeCarre and Eileen Chang in a blender and make the result a true story, and you get Midnight in Peking.

French has a gift for spinning out the suspense and tension. He deftly explains the back-history and the politics, making it understandable so the reader can get a sense of the all the factions at play, but without letting it get in the way of the story he's trying to tell. It's a powerful, gripping read.

I will warn you it's not for the faint of heart. Pamela's murder is truly horrific. Both the state of her body and the conclusions Werner reaches are beyond any Law & Order episode.

The end papers of a beautifully illustrated map of Old Peking, BUT they don't function as the most useful map. This book really needs a good map to help the reader get his or her head around the geography of everything.

It's a fascinating and distressing look at the last days of colonial Beijing. It's a page-turning murder mystery. And I mean... wow. Just... wow.



*Beijing = Peking. They are pronounced exactly the same. Throughout the book, French uses the old Wade-Giles system of Transliteration. Tianjin reverts back to Tientsin. I assume it's because it's more historically accurate. The Pinyin Romanization standard was invented by the communists over a decade after the events in this book. It also adds to that colonial old-world feel that pervades the drawing rooms and hotel bars where the action takes place. However, as someone whose mind works in Pinyin, this took a bit getting used to. Although, if you want to be super-technical about it, at the time this book takes place the city's name had been changed to Beiping/ Pei-p'ing because jing means capital and in 1928, Chaing Kai-Shek had moved the capital back in Nanjing (Nan means south, Bei means north) so Beijing was no longer the capital and so its name changed (back) to Beiping (ping means plain. The city had been named Beiping at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, when the Ming capital was at Nanjing. Before then, it had a few different names.) Until 1949 when Mao moved the capital back to Beijing and changed the name back. Interestingly, Nanjing never changes its name when it's not the capital. Thus endeth my supreme nerdiness.

**Shura was a half-Chinese, half-Russian of indeterminate sex who passed as man or woman, European or Chinese, depending on Shura's mood. Shura was a wine dealer, cabaret star, and a jewel thief. After the Bolsheviks murdered Shura's Tsarist official parents, Shura walked across Siberia and Mongolia to get to China. You know, AS YOU DO. Shura is a minor character, who greatly helps Werner's investigation, but I'm currently mildly obsessed.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Fox and Phoenix

Fox and Phoenix Beth Bernobich

The king is dying and the princess isn't responding to her messages. The Ghost Dragon King sends Kai and Yun to the heart of the Phoenix Empire to bring the princess home from university. But there are forces that don't want Kai and Yun to reach the princess, and, once they do, forces that won't let her leave.

Magic + steampunk + court intrigue + a Chinese fantasy setting = OH YES.

The set up to this story is one that you'll love or hate, depending. Basically, it reads like a sequel, but it's not. Kai and his friends met the Princess a year ago, when they helped her find her heart's desire. It sounded like a basic fairy tale set-up, doing impossible tasks to win her hand, but her heart's desire was to study politics before taking the throne. No one got her hand, the street gang was rewarded handsomely and the princess got to go to college. Win win. But... this is the story about what happens next. The money has changed Kai and his friends. They used it to escape the streets, but their group has drifted and things have shifted and changed. For Kai, it seemed easier then.

I LOVED this. I've often wanted a story about what happens next or what about the other people caught up in some epic battle, not the hero? I like how we jumped in, between big adventures. But, I can see that some people might really hate the same thing.

I liked how it was magical steampunk. The technology felt like futuristic steampunk, but magic was what it ran on, plus standard fantasy magic. And spirit animals.

Oh yes, and China. That's always a major plus in my book. I do like China.

And the cover is awesome.

I will say it took me awhile to get into it. The first 100 pages were a bit slow, but I'll admit that might have been my mood when I read it. After that though, I had a hard time putting it down. Very fun.

UPDATE: Beth Bernobich emailed me to let me know there IS actually a prequel. It was a short story in the out-of-print anthology Magic in the Mirrorstone. Luckily for us, she put it up on Smashwords for FREE. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

SLJ Nonfiction Round-Up

Because this is a record of everything I read, occasionally I link to reviews I write elsewhere. Here's a list of recent nonfiction reviews I've written for School Library Journal.

The New Cultural Atlas of China ed. Tom Cooke

From my review:
...tends to treat the more than 2000 years of the history of imperial China as one political, economic, and cultural monolith...The strongest feature of this atlas is the collection of maps... Unfortunately, even these are problematic, as maps of the "modern People's Republic of China" are woefully out of date. Hong Kong and Macau (returned to China in 1997 and 1999, respectively) are shown as European possessions, and Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are labeled as belonging to the USSR

Other notes-- Awesome for the maps, but the text isn't helpful. Only for people who know what bits to ignore.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution (Milestones in Modern World History) Louise Chipley Slavicek

From my review:
Slavicek clearly explains this complex and confusing time for readers with little to no background in modern Chinese history, covering the social, economic, and political aspects of the era. The book is at its best when explaining Mao's political maneuvering. Numerous pull-out boxes provide context about and excerpts from primary sources.

Other notes-- a really excellent introduction to a very confusing time period. Unlike most introductory books about the Cultural Revolution, it clearly explains everything to a novice without simplifying a very complex time without simplifying it to the point of no longer being entirely accurate.

Multicultural Programs for Tweens and Teens ed. Linda B. Alexander and Nahyun Kwon

From my review:
They outline several programs that librarians can use with their patrons to introduce different cultures. Each entry lists objectives, target age ranges, costs, activities, and a reading list. Within these parameters, there is a wide range of programs and quality.

Other notes: This is a collection of student projects. Some work really well in a real library, some are great in theory, some only work for inspiration, and some should just be ignored.

Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire (World History (Lucent)) Don Nardo

From my review:
Using new scholarship, Nardo paints a more nuanced and sophisticated picture of a man who united several nomadic clans and then went on to found history’s largest empire...Several detailed examples are given of Genghis Khan’s bravery, ingenuity, and compassion, drawing readers in and showing more depth to the man than they may be used to.

Other notes: For the type of book this is (series book usually used for reports) it had a surprisingly large amount of browsability and reader appeal.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (Landmarks of the American Mosaic) John Soennichsen

From my review:
Short chapters are clearly organized and well sourced. Nearly half the text is back matter, including biographies of key figures, several primary-source documents, and an annotated bibliography. The methodical analysis of the events leading up to the passage of the Exclusion Act helps students discover how the passage of such a law could happen.

Other notes:
So many primary sources in the back matter, it made my nerdy heart giddy with joy.

Books and ARCs provided by... School Library Journal for review for their publication

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: A Song

A Song
by Cao Cao

Wine before us, sing a song.
How long does life last?
It is like the morning dew;
Sad so many days have past.

Sing hey, sing ho!
Deep within my heart I pine.
Nothing can dispel my woe,
Save Du Kang, the god of wine.

Blue, blue the scholar's robe;
Long, long for him I ache.
Preoccupied with you, my lord.
Heavy thoughts for your sake.

To each other cry the deer,
Nibbling grass upon the plain.
When a good friend visits me,
We'll play the lyre once again.

In the sky, the moon is bright;
Yet I can reach it never.
In my heart such sorrow dwells;
Remaining with me ever.

In the fields, our paths crossed;
Your visit was so kind.
Together after our long parting,
Your favours come to mind.

Clear the moon, few the stars;
The crows in southward flight.
Circling three times round the tree,
No branch where to alight.

What if the mountain is high,
Or how deep the sea?
When the Duke of Zhou greeted a guest,
In his service all wished to be.


Cao Cao lived from 155-200 AD and was the warlord who set up the Wei Dynasty of China's Three Kingdoms period. Despite the tenderness of his poetry, he was known for his ruthlessness and his name is used in Mandarin idiom for an equivalent of "talk of the devil."

The poem and biographical details come from Poetry and Prose of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties edited and translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang.

Book Provided by... my wallet

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National Poetry Month: Buying Flowers

Bai Juyi was a Chinese poet in the late eighth-mid ninth century. Like many poets and scholars of imperial China, he was also an administrator and court adviser. His poetry emphasized clear language and a lot of his political work dealt with social reform and opposing imperial excess.

I think this shows in his poetry, such as the poem I'm sharing today

Buying Flowers

Almost late spring in the imperial city;
Noise and bustle from passing carriages and horses.
People sad that peonies were in blossom,
Following each other to buy the flowers.
Expensive or cheap, no fixed price, except according to quantity;
Five hundred bright red blossoms cost five lengths of silk.
Overhead were awnings and curtains for shelters;
Around them were bamboo fences for protection.
Sprayed with water and their roots sealed with mud;
When they were removed, they still retained their beauty.
Every family accepted this, none questioning it was wrong.
Then and old villager came to the market.
Head bowed, he sighed to himself, though none knew why.
He sighed because the cost of a bunch of deep red flowers
Was the same as the taxes paid by ten peasant families.


I like the imagery, although I think the last lines hit point home rather hard and could have been done much more subtly to greater effect, but I'm also looking at it several centuries later.

The poem (and the biographical information) came from Poetry and Prose of the Tang and Song, edited and translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang.

Book Provided by... my wallet

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The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers Richard McGregor

China's often a contradiction-- a booming market economy but a communist government. The West used to say that we needed to do business with China because for we'd be selling democracy with every hamburger, but it hasn't worked out that way.

In this book McGregor lays out a fascinating account of how the Party controls government and the economy (including how much control they have over many large Chinese firms that look like they're not held by the state.) As someone with a long-term interest and knowledge of China, McGregor's book didn't hold many surprises, but it did confirm many things I've long suspected and laid out exactly how they work.

I think it's best put in the quotation from a professor in Beijing that starts the first chapter. "The Party is like God. He is everywhere. You just can't see him."

The most interesting chapter for me was the one covering the Sanlu milk scandal. This was a story I remember following in the news as it unfolded. At first it was a little weird as McGregor mentions Sanlu and then seemingly changes topics and talks about something else for 5 pages and then ties it to Sanlu and then seemingly changes topics and talks about something else for 5 pages and then ties it back to Sanlu and then seemingly changes topics (you get the point.)

But, in the end, you get a thorough background that shows the general corporate culture and tensions between Party and economy so a scandal and cover-up like this was almost inevitable. A interesting thing that was an "oh, duh" moment for me was that one of the reasons for the cover-up was timing. Sanlu first because aware it had a huge problem in May, 2008 but the government wanted to have such a good image for the Olympics in August, they put extreme pressure not only on newspapers to not report negative news, but also on companies to not *have* any negative news.

McGregor also uses several recent high-profile corruption cases to show how the Party works-- how it places people in power and can remove them just as quickly-- and what happens to non-members who run afoul of it.

In the West, it's hard to wrap our heads around how the Party is the government and the oversight and the army and the police and the fourth estate and even big business. Although I found the writing to be a bit clunky in the beginning,* McGregor clearly untangles the Party's web to explain it to the outside observer.



*The example that still sticks in my head is when he described China as a panopticon and then spent half a page explaining what the panopticon meant. If you don't think your readers will get the reference, don't use the reference!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Silver Phoenix

Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia Cindy Pon

When disgusting Master Huang claims that Ai Ling's father owes him money, but will forgive the debt if she becomes his fourth wife, she knows he's lying. She's started being able to read other people's minds. But, there's no way to prove it. The only person who can help is Ai Ling's father, but he went to the Emporer's palace six months ago and hasn't been heard from since. In order to escape Master Huang, Ai Ling steals away to find her father and bring him home.

Her journey is immediately beset by disaster as evil spirits and demons track her down and try to stop her. But then she meets Chen Yong, a young man of half Xian, half foreign descent who is looking for his birth parents. Together with Chen Yong's brother, they seek their answers, all the while fighting beings that they never thought actually existed outside of the books they've read.

Ok, I know this got some blogger love when it first came out but why hasn't it taken off in the same way Graceling has? This most reminded me of Graceling, but I liked it so much better! I don't know why. Not just because the worlds they explore are more Chinese than Western. (They're all Pon's own creation, but have a definite Chinese feel.)

Ai Ling's exploration of her powers, her feelings on the Immortals and seeing what she never fully believed in, the strength she finds in herself... I could not put this book down. So awesome. So very super awesome and fun. And exciting! Actually, with all the action and battles with things from the underworld, this would make an awesome movie.

And OMG the very, very ending. So wonderful but man am I glad to hear that there is a sequel coming. I need to know what happens next! Not a cliffhanger (don't worry) but real life doesn't wrap up nicely in the last twenty pages, and it doesn't here, either.


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Country Driving

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory Peter Hessler

I love how Hessler writes about China. His work is honest--this is what I observed, this is what I lived, this is my experience, it's not universal and I won't make broad sweeping claims. He's honest about the limitations and exceptions about being foreign in China. He points out the things that drive Westerners in China crazy, but obviously loves the country and the people. His research and insights will engage China scholars, but he's accessible enough for the casual reader as well. Also, the man can just write. Period. He has a gift with language that I envy.

Can I just admit now that I have a total Chinageek crush on him?

Country Driving is divided into three parts:

The first is called The Wall and is about road trips Hessler took in 2001-2002, following the Great Wall. Like in Oracle Bones, Hessler moves seamlessly between the present and ancient history, giving us a moment in time when China's car boom was just beginning as well as a history of the walls through many dynasties and modern history. The parts about the wall are the most interesting, exploring popular misconceptions and how the wall has become a symbol of China and what it means. He references a lot of work done by David Spindler, whom he also talked a lot about in his New Yorker article (May 21, 2007) about hiking the wall. Sadly, Spindler hasn't written a Great Wall book (yet?) but I really hope he does, and soon. His research sounds fascinating.

The second part, which was my favorite, is called The Village. Hessler and a friend rented a house in a small village north of Beijing, near the Great Wall, as a sort of writer's retreat. Like many small villages, it's dying-- most of the young people have fled to the cities to find jobs. There are complications with being a foreigner and renting the land, explorations of local politics, and a portrait of daily life in a rural village. There's also the tribulations of his friend and landlord, Wei Ziqi, who's determined to become an entrepeneur, and a gutwrenching story of what happens when Wei's son, Wei Jia gets really sick. In his years in the village, it changed. The road came to the village, more people in Beijing learned to drive, and more middle-class urbanites wanted to get away to the country for the weekend. It is an wonderful look at how rapidly China is changing and why and how. In three years, the average wage for a days labor in the village doubled. In the years he was there, the village got a good road, cell phone coverage, and cable. From wasting very little, the village suddenly had a trash problem. The effect was jarring on the people in the village.

"The longer I lived in China, the more I worried about how people responded to rapid change. This wasn't an issue of modernization, at least not in the absolute sense; I never opposed progress. I understood why people were eager to escape poverty, and I had a deep respect for their willingness to work and adapt. But there were costs when this process happened so fast." We see how this family changes due to the rapid success and changes-- the dad starts smoking and drinking heavily, the mom feels lonely and isolated and overworked. When we first met their son he was wiry and scrappy and tough, now he watches cartoons all day and is out of shape. The effects of such swift change were interesting to explore on a personal level.

The third part is called The Factory. Hessler finds a boom town before it booms in southern China and observes how it grows, and pays attention to one factory in particular. In the "well, I guess someone has to make it file" the factory makes underwires for bras, and the little rings used for the adjustable part of bra straps. In the factory sense, one detail I found fascinating was when the factory got a new order, the bra company would send over a sample of each strap color. Then a worker would look through his color book and mix and match colors and dyes until he matched the strap exactly and new what color to make the rings.

As a huge fan of Factory Girls, this section goes really well with that book (which, in a way, makes sense, as Leslie Chang and Hessler are married and wrote the books at the same time, in the same house.)

But throughout the book, it's the way Hessler connects with people and makes the reader connect with them, too. It's also the little insights into Chinese culture-- the role of smoking in Chinese business and what various brands of cigarette signal about the smoker (it also answered a question lingering from my 2007 trip to Beijing about why Panda brand cigarettes are so CRAZY EXPENSIVE. Turns out they were Deng Xiaoping's favorite brand and manufacture is very limited by the government.) How factory towns tend to specialize in a product and what towns specialized in what in the area of the bra ring factory. I marked so many passages and even though I got this book from the library, I will be purchasing my own copy when it comes out in paperback.

To read more, see:

Harper's Six Questions for Peter Hessler

Behind the Wheel, About to Snap (a look at the photos Hessler took during his trips)


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Poetry Friday

Sunday is Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year, so why not share a Chinese love poem? Chang Yu lived in the ninth century. I got this poem out of the anthology Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry

"Song of Farewell" in the Tartar Mode

The sheen of the willows spreads ten thousand feet,
The fragrance of peach blossoms fills the park.
But when the wind blows it past the curtain,
There's only the scent that clings to the dress.

Lee over at I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the hell do I read? is hosting the round-up!

Book Provided by... my wallet, many years ago.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Chop Suey

Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States Andrew Coe

Coe attempts to explain how Chinese food in the States evolved over time from what was solely eaten by Chinese immigrants to what we know today from our local take-out place.

Coe is a food guy, not a China guy, and there are some China-things that he just gets wrong that drove me up a wall. Such as inconsistent transliteration. I'm also not sure he realizes that Nanjing and Nanking are two different transliterations of the same city (南京) instead of two different cities. More disturbing is the fact that some of the history is off. Most glaringly, on page 232, "After Mao's death, they [Shanghai party leaders] would become key members of the radical Communist group known as the Gang of Four." The Gang of Four were blamed for most the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, and they were all arrested within a month of Mao's death, so I'm not entirely sure how you could become a key member after the death of Mao.

There are other odd inconsistencies. Coe attributes the acceptance of the Chinese restaurant by "main stream" America on Prohibition, because Chinese restaurants often had player pianos and dance floors but had never served alcohol so weren't affected by the loss of sales like many other establishments, but two pages later (1/2 of which is taken up by a picture) he says, "These restaurant owners were all two aware that they weren't selling caviar and champagne, but chop suey, ham and cheese sandwiches, and the like--food everybody liked by nobody wanted to spend much money on. The real profits were in volume and in liquor; the businessmen rented the largest possible spaces and featured a wide array of exotic cocktails on their menus." (191)

Such errors throw the rest of the book into doubt, especially as Coe makes some big claims in the history of Chinese food, such as the history of Chop Suey. The story I always heard was that it was invented in San Fransisco's China town. Coe claims that the main urban legend is that visiting dignitary Li Hongzhang introduced it to the US on his 1896 visit. Coe asserts that in fact Chop Suey was common peasant food in Toishan and brought to the States by gold rush immigrants. Because it was southern peasant food, it wasn't recognized as authentically Chinese by later immigrants who came from better off backgrounds and points further north. It's an interesting theory that I would like to explore more, but Coe did not convince me. The history-of-Chop Suey section came before the errors I mention above, but I remained unconvinced, a feeling that was thrown into sharper relief as the book wore on.

If you're interested in the history of American Chinese food, read The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8 Lee. If you want to know more about Chinese immigration to the US and the issues surrounding that, read Iris Chang's The Chinese in America: A Narrative History.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Poetry Friday

It's Poetry Friday! Yay!

Today's poem is a song written by Philip Cunningham, who was an American student studying in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He includes the song in the prologue of his memoir, which I review below. Round up is over at Susan Writes!

Midnight moon of Tiannamen,
When will I see you again?
Looking for you everywhere,
Going in circles around the Square...
Riding with you down Chang’an Jie,
Memories I'd like to share...
Shadows dancing in the dark,
Lovers talking in the park...
Follow you here,
Follow you there,
Bathing in your
Sweet moonlight everywhere...
Midnight moon of Tiananmen,
When will I see you again?

Tiananmen Moon: Inside the Chinese Student Uprising of 1989 Philip J. Cunningham

Here's one that doesn't count for my China Challenge because I started it in August, but it is one that could count for your China Challenge reading, and it is one that I recommend.

Cunningham was in a unique position in the spring of 1989. He was an American studying in Beijing. His role as a student gave him many Chinese friends and acquaintances who were caught up in the student movement and Cunningham was caught up in it to. His skills in Chinese language and his knowledge of Beijing made him a valuable asset for the BBC and he started freelancing for them. Cunningham was then caught in this odd in-between of participant and observer.

The book he wrote, nearly twenty years after the fact, isn't a book about what happened and why although we get some glimpses of that. It isn't history. It is a deeply personal memoir about one man's experiences with being a foreigner in Beijing in the late 80s, and his experiences marching, protesting, and dodging bullets. It's a look at the pitfalls of international news. It's a book where one man tries to make sense of what he saw and what he did and what it meant. Along the way, he offers great insight into what happened from the point of view of the people on the ground, the ones who made it happen. We have so many books from the prospective of the historian, and even a few from the prospective of the government official, but we don't have many from the point of view of the students who were involved, especially the ones who weren't part of central command or in leadership. The fact that Cunningham is American helps him explain it to a Western reader.

It will be an easier read for those with some background of the Tiananmen movement (and it's fascinating to read against the Tiananmen chapters of Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang). You can read several excerpts at China Beat.

To Quote Chairman Mao...

Book review time! This one doesn't count for my China Challenge because I actually read it in August. But if you wanted to, you could read it for your China Challenge!

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party Ying Chang Compestine

This is an autobiographical novel of Chang's childhood during the Cultural Revolution. Starting in 1972, it tells of 8-year-old Ling, who watches in horror over four years as neighbors disappear, food becomes scarce, and suspicion rules the land. Throughout it all, she clings to a hidden picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and her surgeon father's stories of American Freedom.

While the story is a gripping account of a turbulent time aimed at middle grade readers (not really YA, despite the marketing) I have a small, but major, historical bone to pick. One which utterly ruins an otherwise wonderful novel.

If Ling was untouched by the Cultural Revolution until 1972, which is what happens in the book, she was truly blessed. In 1967, Wuhan (where the story takes place) erupted into full scale civil war with Red Guard fighting Red Guard. (While I'm sure such fighting continued in Wuhan sporadically throughout the Cultural Revolution, it seems strange to miss the 1967 fighting all together and instead place such events in 1976). The fact that her family's lifestyle--pearl necklaces, Voice of America broadcasts, English lessons, foreign novels, even celebrating Christmas Eve, survived the turmoil of the late 1960s (when Cultural Revolution furor was at its highest) until the early 1970s is, frankly, unbelievable. So is the fact that neighbors don't disappear and no one gets sent to the country side until 1974, which is when things were starting to wind down. Most of the action that is described in the book would have made much more sense in 1966-1968 ish. The fact that Ling somehow missed the first 8 years of the Cultural Revolution and was only aware of the last 4 is a bit like having a Holocaust novel set in Warsaw and nothing bad starts happening until 1941. The only thing that rings true for the the mid-1970s period is the scarcity of food and near starvation.

I was reading this and then flipped back to check the year again and I knew it was wrong. So, I put it down and looked some stuff up in Jonathan Spence's The Search for Modern China. I even ran to the bookstore to finally purchase a copy of Mao's Last Revolution by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals. As I was reading an ARC (provided by the publisher at ALA a few years ago in my role as librarian, not as blogger) I double checked the dates against the published copy and still... yeah.

Also, they were celebrating Christmas? The only reason you would celebrate Christmas in the middle of the Cultural Revolution is if you were deeply Christian, and then you'd think that would come up in a first-person narrative about it, but it didn't, so it was just... odd.

I would have really, really enjoyed this book if it started in 1967 or 1968. It would have been a wonderful book if it didn't have these timeline issues. I would be throwing this book at people, demanding that the read it, if the years at the beginning of each section were different. Sadly, they aren't, and so I have serious reservations about it and will instead point you to Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang.

Grrrrr.

Radomly Reading Eileen Chang

So, I've been cooped up in the house the last few days with PINK EYE. Blargh. It's pretty sucktastic.

But, I have gotten a bunch of reading done.

I did some decided to use the random number generator and have a book picked for me for the Random Reading Challenge. My number was 263, which happened to be...

The Rouge of the North Eileen Chang

At the end of the Qing dynasty, Yindi lives with her brother and sister-in-law above their sesame oil shop until she's married off to the second son of a wealthy, but fading, family. He's an invalid and she finds herself attracted to her husband's younger brother. Yindi is not satisfied with her lot in life, but not strong enough to break out of the mold. Instead, she scandalizes the family by talking about taboo subjects without discretion and turns to opium. She becomes more and more controlling and demented, turning her household into the same place she always hated, but with her in charge.

Yes, the plot is the same as Chang's novella, "The Golden Cangue" which can be found in her Love in a Fallen City, which I reviewed here (and loved). After reading The Rouge of the North, I reread "The Golden Cangue" (so, I've read it three times now.)

In her short stories and novellas, Chang is the queen of the understatement. I often have to reread scenes so I can figure out what happened (let's not talk a bout how many times I had to read the ending of Lust, Caution because I figured out what had gone down.)

The Rouge of the North lacks this understatement. The full length novel (written in English, while "The Golden Cangue" was written in Chinese) explores things more fully and gives more explanations and motivations to Yindi's behavior. Here, we see a woman who is dissatisfied with her female role in society, but trapped by it. In "Cangue" Qiqiao was just crazy insane. It wasn't all opium, but you're unsure as to why she is the way she is. I didn't like Yindi, but I understood her more.

English was Chang's second language and while she writes in it very well, it lacks some of the poetry of her translated works.

Take this passage from "The Golden Cangue":

A gust of wind came in the window and blew against the long mirror in the scrollwork lacquered frame until it rattled against the wall. Qiqiao pressed the mirror down with her hands. The green bamboo curtain and a green and gold landscape scroll reflected in the mirror went on swinging back and forth in the wind--one could get dizzy watching it for long. When she looked again the green bamboo curtain had faded, the green and gold landscape was replaced by a photograph of her deceased husband, and the woman in the mirror was also ten years older.

Compare it to the same transition in The Rouge of the North:

[this is preceded by a chapter where she attempts to hang herself. This is how the next chapter starts]

The green bamboo blind kept moving in the summer breeze coming in the window. Sunlight tiger-striped the room and swayed back and forth. A large black-framed photograph of Second Master knocked on the wall. That time it had been he who called out and she was let down in time. She had never worn mourning white for him because Old Mistress was still alive. Heavy mourning would have been a bad omen pointing to the head of the house. Now she worse mourning for Old Mistress.

Not my favorite one of her works, but Chang remains one of my favorite authors and I did very much enjoy reading this.

Nonfiction Monday

Well, it's not for kids, but it's Nonfiction and might be a good one for those of you signing up for my China Challenge!

Also, check out other reading challenges at the brand new Reading Challenges Clearinghouse. I did a lot of work over the weekend and its success will depend on your help.

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang, translated and edited by Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius with a foreword by Roderick MacFarquhar

Zhao Ziyang joined the Communist Youth Leage in 1932 and the Party in 1938. In 1939 he was party secretary for Hua County. He then rose through Party ranks. He was temporarily purged during the Cultural Revolution, but reinstated before its end, by being appointed Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Revolutionary Committee for Inner Mongolia in 1971. In 1973, he arrived in Beijing and rose through the ranks of the Central Committee. By 1980 he was Premier and in 1987 he became General Secretary.

The bulk of Zhao's career was spent on China's economic reforms, but he is best remembered for opposing Deng Xiaoping's orders for martial law during the 1989 Tian'anmen Square protests. He refused to the be man who ordered the army on students. Because of this, he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Historians always wished that he had written his memoirs to tell his side of the story, but he didn't. After his death in 2005, it came to light that while Zhao hadn't written his memoirs, he had secretly recorded them and hid the tapes in plain sight.

This book is the transcription and translation of those tapes.

It's an undeniably important document and parts of it are very accessible. I really enjoyed the chapters on the Tian'anmen protests and all of the cut-throat politics used in the upper echelons of Chinese power. The false rumors, two-faced comments, and back-room maneuvering is rather spectacular. The chapters on economic reform are actually probably the most useful for those studying the current Chinese market, but I found it to be dragging, because frankly, I'm not that interested in such things.

I wouldn't call this book overly academic, but you should have some China-geek tendencies. The editors do all they can to make this book as accessible as possible-- every chapter has an introduction to give background information and there is a really hand list of who's who in the back. That said, you'll probably want some background on 1980s China or at least the Tian'anmen protests.

Overall, I found most of it fascinating.

Book Unbanned

We don't often hear about this, especially in countries where books are seriously banned country-wide.

Well, Fei Du by Jia Pingwa is now available again in China. 13 years after publication, it's been unbanned!

I can't find an English translation of it, although Jia's Turbulence is available in English.

China Challenge!

We hear about China all the time in the news. It has one of the richest and longest literary histories in the world. It's a huge and changing country, and there are a million books out there to enjoy. In order to help us understand China, join the China Challenge!

The challenge will last a year and a day, from September 1, 2009-September 1, 2010. Feel free to snag a button and sign up in the comments!

Audio books are fine, as are books for all age levels. If you want ideas of things to read, just click on the "China" tag at the end of this post to see a bunch of my previous reviews of all sorts of books about China.

There are several levels to choose from:

Armchair Traveler:

Read 1 book about China. I'm defining this pretty loosely, but the majority of the action should take place in China. For the sake of ease, places such as Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Taiwan count.

Fast Train to Shanghai:

Read 5 books about China

1 should be a translated work of fiction by a Chinese author (or not translated if you have the language skills.) I will make exceptions for Chinese authors that also write in English-- their English works are fine.

1 should be nonfiction

Hiking the Great Wall:

Read 10 books about China

1 should be a work of translated fiction

1 should be nonfiction.

Here you can read 1 book (but only 1) about Chinese immigration. So, stories of Chinese people abroad, or nonfiction about overseas Chinese communities.

Silk Road Trek:

Same as "Hiking the Great Wall," but you also have to do (and blog about!) at least 3 of these other China-Related activities:

1. Listen to a lesson or two on Chinese Pod (the Newbie lessons are free for all) and learn some Mandarin

2. Check out a Chinese cookbook and make a dish that's new to you

3. Go out for Chinese food. If you can, dim sum brunch!

4. Read a blog about China (my daily China reads are: Shanghaiist, Danwei, China Beat, and Laura & Tony. Don't worry, they're all in English!)

5. Listen to some Chinese music! Peking Opera might not be your cup of tea, but try Shanghai Lounge Divas or listen to some current Indie music from China here or the phenomenal Afterquake.

6. Watch a Chinese film

7. Check out a travel guide and plan a vacation to China-- it's a huge country--what cities do you want to go to and what do you want to see while there?

8. Actually take that vacation! Or a different trip to China.


9. Attend a Chinese cultural event or art exhibit in your area.

UPDATE! Mr. Linky is my friend again. If you signed up in the comments, you're good to go!

Books for Adults

So, for about half an hour today, there was a picture of a ball of yarn posted to the blog that might have made it into your blog reader. I did not mean to post that to this blog, but rather to my knitting blog, so if you want to read the post that picture went to, head over to my knitting roundup...

Anyway, this weekend I read a lot of books for grownups (shocking!) so I thought I'd share a review of a book for grownups that I read this spring.

The Moon Opera Bi Feiyu

The Moon Opera has been thought to be cursed ever since the first production closed before it opened, for political reasons. But now, a rich cigarette factory owner wants it restaged and is willing to put up the capital to do so, but only under the condition that the star from the more successful second run returns to the stage. Xiao Yanqiu hasn't been onstage in 20 years, since the last time she sang the Moon Opera and scalded her understudy with a cup of boiling water.

It's a short novel, almost a novella, that gets straight to the point, with a few meditations on Beijing Opera. A little background in Beijing Opera might be helpful, but the main thing you should know is that there are some stock characters in Beijing Opera--Strong Guy, Seductress, Dutiful Woman, etc. You can tell immediately what type of character you're dealing with based on their movements, costume, and makeup. Actually, makeup alone will tell you.

Anyway... this is a story of warring divas, a character study of an aging one. It's quiet, but sucks you in. I had a few problems with some general statements the narrator makes about women, but overall, I did really like this one.

I hope we see more of Bi's works being translated.